A new anti-smoking campaign launched in the closing days of 2013 by Public Health England (PHE) includes TV adverts that show in graphic detail the harmful effects of smoking on the brain, heart and lungs.
The new Smokefree Health Harms campaign highlights how inhaling cigarette smoke generates a "toxic cycle of dirty blood" that carries harmful chemicals like arsenic and cyanide around the body, causing damage to major organs.
The dirty blood moves through the lungs and the heart, finally ending up in the brain, causing damage to brain cells.
While all organs are affected, the brain is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of these chemicals, leading to a faster decline in mental capacity and raised risk of dementia and stroke, says the campaign.
Smoking can narrow the arteries, which in turn raises risk of blood clots that lead to stroke, and recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that smokers are twice as likely to die of a stroke, compared with non-smokers.
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